The Fish I Couldn’t Eat At Home, The Fish He Ate With Her Chapter 09

The Fish I Couldn’t Eat At Home, The Fish He Ate With Her Chapter 09

I rolled my eyes at him, pushed back from the table, cleared everything away, and got up to leave.

Sebastian stared at me in complete confusion. He did not call after me until I was almost qut the

door.

“Vivian, am I not allowed to pursue you? Can I or can’t I?”

I let out a quiet sigh.

What a fool.

Where had that ruthless, commanding confidence gone? The same confidence that had made him

such a force in the international business world?

I shook my head and walked away.

Then I quietly left him a message on his phone.

[Yes.]

That one short reply seemed to flip a switch in Sebastian.

From that day on, he stopped hiding his feelings.

He sent me gifts openly. He brought me breakfast. He went out of his way to do things that were

completely out of character for the CEO everyone knew him to be.

His employees would often sneak glances at us and try not to laugh.

I warned him more than once to stop.

He would only grin.

“The whole company belongs to me. I do whatever the hell I want.”

I liked how straightforward he was about loving me.

But I did not want to become someone who broke the rules just because I was dating the boss.

Eventually, I agreed to go on an actual date with him.

Dating as an adult was surprisingly fun.

A romantic fireworks show.

A glass of wine.

One unforgettable night.

That was when Sebastian and I officially became a couple.

He held me in his arms and told me about the feelings he had carried for me for the past ten years.

He told me that real love was rare. When you liked someone, you liked them. There was no point pretending otherwise. And when it came to me, he had never been able to hide how he felt.

He said he did not care about my history with Julian. His only regret was that he had not been brave

enough to confess his feelings back then.

I laughed at him.

“You’re the CEO of a massive company. What were you ever afraid of?”

He smiled.

“When you meet someone you truly care about, being brave isn’t always easy.”

There was something about his handsome face and those warm, expressive eyes that completely

swept me off my feet.

Before long, we started showing up together at all kinds of social events.

As for the messages Julian kept sending to my phone, Sebastian took it upon himself to keep an eye

on them.

Every now and then, he would point at my phone and start complaining.

His favorite line was always the same.

“Why the hell won’t this guy sign the divorce papers? How am I supposed to marry you if he refuses

to sign?”

Four months later, the quarterly financial report for the subsidiary exceeded every performance

target we had set.

Sebastian smiled and held out his hand to me.

“Welcome to Prescott Group, future Mrs. Prescott.”

I took his hand.

We looked at each other, our feelings for one another completely unmistakable.

That night, the company held a celebration party.

Everyone drank, laughed, and celebrated until the entire room was buzzing.

I had never been a good drinker, so I slipped out of the bistro and quietly lit a cigarette.

I had barely taken two drags when someone across the street caught my eye.

Someone I never expected to see again.

Julian.

He looked completely broken.

His clothes were rumpled, his face was worn, and he looked like he had been through hell.

The moment he saw me, even he froze.

Then a flicker of excitement flashed across his eyes, and he hurried straight toward me.

His gaze traveled over my short hair.

Then my tailored suit.

Then the cigarette still burning between my fingers.

He swallowed hard.

“Vivian, you’ve changed so much.”

I gave him a cool, indifferent look.

There was nothing left in my eyes for him.

Julian did not dare waste another second.

“I… I need to talk to you. Why have you never answered any of my messages?”

I answered casually, “My boyfriend has replied to you a few times, hasn’t he?”

Maybe the word boyfriend hit him harder than anything else could have.

He froze.

Then he stared at me in disbelief.

“Your… your what?”

Before I could say anything else, Sebastian pushed open the restaurant door and stepped outside.

He was dressed in an impeccably tailored designer suit. Everything about him radiated the

confidence and authority of a man accustomed to being at the top.

One look at him was enough to make Julian’s face flush.

Julian looked as though he had just been humiliated in front of the entire world.

“Vivian… he… who is he?”

I repeated myself calmly.

“Let me introduce you. This is my boyfriend, Sebastian.”

Julian stared at me.

“But we’re not divorced!”

“You’re the one who refused to sign the papers. As far as I’m concerned, our marriage ended a long, long time ago.”

The hurt on Julian’s face was painfully obvious.

He looked almost exactly the way I had looked when I first learned the truth about him.

His eyes drifted over Sebastian’s polished appearance, and the humiliation in his expression only deepened.

His voice turned pleading.

“Please don’t do this to me. You’re all I have left!”

I looked at him coldly.

“No. I don’t belong to you anymore, either.”

Julian stood there in stunned silence.

For a long time.

Then he finally spoke again.

“Vivian, I know I was wrong. I really do. I’ve thought about everything I did.”

I let out a quiet, bitter sigh.

“And what good does that do now?”

I looked straight at him.

“Julian, I never understood why you kept holding on in the first place. You cheated on me and had a

child with another woman. You openly favored your mistress. What exactly did you expect me to do? Come running back to you and continue living through all that misery?”

My voice remained calm, but every word was firm.

“Julian, staying with you would have destroyed me.”

Julian looked like he wanted to say a thousand things.

But then he saw Sebastian’s arm resting naturally around my shoulders.

He saw how comfortable I was beside him.

He saw that I no longer belonged to him in any way.

Julian’s eyes turned red.

Then he broke down crying.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Vivian. I admit it. I was the one who messed everything up. I let myself get

carried away by the wrong things. But you never gave me a chance to explain. You just left. You walked away without even giving me a chance to say anything.”

I took one last drag from my cigarette, crushed it, and flicked it into the trash.

Then I pushed open the restaurant door and went back inside.

Before I left, I gave him only one final sentence.

“Do what I did. Sign the divorce papers and disappear quietly. Because honestly, Julian, you disgust

me.”

His sobs became the background noise of the party.

After that night, Julian finally signed the divorce papers.

I later heard that he had cried uncontrollably.

He had even gone to Sierra’s house and beaten her badly.

Later, he was diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection as well, leaving him too ashamed to face anyone for the rest of his life.

Eventually, one night, he took his own life.

Thankfully, he had never touched me during that period.

I had remained completely healthy and unharmed.

For the first time, Sebastian actually felt grateful to Julian.

The moment the court issued the official Divorce Decree, Sebastian wasted no time.

He proposed to me immediately.

He took me back to his home and showed me the sprawling private estate that covered thousands of

square meters.

Then he pointed toward the enormous mansion and the crystal–blue swimming pool outside.

“This is your home now.”

I smiled and shook my head.

“A house has never been what makes a home. Being with you is.”

I rose onto my toes and kissed him.

The breeze was gentle.

The sky was perfectly blue.

And in that moment, it felt as though time itself had stopped.